Friday, July 01, 2005

Friday Fish Wrap Blog

Salon on Bolton“…His ‘dead hand’ was firmly clutching the throat of the American delegation at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference -- a monthlong gathering at the United Nations that petered out May 27 without agreement on a formal agenda, let alone on further steps toward nonproliferation.

“Without saying it quite as explicitly as Bolton has said it in the past, the American position was to deny that the treaty has any force over the United States while at the same time demanding that it be applied vigorously against those it has unilaterally nominated as bearings on the ‘axis of evil.’…”

This is so typical of this administration (and, of course, human nature): The law doesn’t apply to ME.

I learned this firsthand several years ago, when I found myself driving 120 mph on my way to LA. About the same time I had this moment of realization, a county cop had a similar epiphany, and pulled me over.

I wound up having to appear in court at the county in question, where the judge cut me a new one (and fined me three hundred bucks). He seemed to think I was some kind of hotshot yuppie scum from San Francisco, appearing in his county only to endanger the lives of the citizens therein.

From his point of view, he was right of course. But from my side of much-derided but omnipresent situational ethics, I was struck by the parade of cases that went before mine – all of which involved non-appearance by various defendants, for drunk driving, driving without a license, etc.

All of these were met with a smile by His Honor – no fines, no scoldings, no threats. He just set new court dates, and urged those attorneys and court representatives to make it clear to the absentees how important it was to show up. Hey, Your Honor! I showed up! It was a five hour drive! Where’s my props!

I think I should represent the US at the United Nations, don’t you? I have anger issues! Vague resentments! No social skills!

Eminent domainRight and left alike have united in their disapproval last week of the Supreme Court, when it cleared the path for New London, Connecticut with its plan to buy out a neighborhood and replace it with r&d developers, a hotel, new houses, and a “Riverwalk.”

The burr under everybody’s saddle here is that it is not the government here that employs the utilitarian principle of eminent domain – to make a highway, or a stadium, but the private investors.

I don’t know anything about the legal aspects of this case, but I can state this with certainty: a city that thinks a Riverwalk will energize the local economy is a city in deep denial. Have you even been on a Riverwalk? It’s kind of like walking by a river, only mediated by bad architecture.

For those who hate Hillary, you know who you are….New York Magazine (is that still around?) recently revealed that a photo used in Edward Klein’s new book (also reviled by the right and left! Strange), which allegedly catches Bill Clinton kissing a woman not his wife, was taken by a photographer Jay L. Clendenin at 2004 rally for John Kerry, and actually showed Clinton innocently pecking a potential voter.

The caption in the book reads, according to NEW YORK: “Bill mouth-kissing a supporter. Hillary’s aides noticed that Bill seemed to grow even more reckless after his memoir, My Life, became a big bestseller. He was rolling in money—and hubris. Throwing caution to the wind, he started a torrid affair with a stunning divorcée in her early forties.”

Clendenin told the magazine: “I was there. She kissed him on the cheek. Nothing more. Two seconds out of each other’s lives.”

Asked by the magazine for comment on the picture, Klein responded: "It invites the reader to see a pattern of behavior on his part. A man who masturbated in the Oval Office with a cigar shouldn't be going around leering at women and kissing them on the mouth."

Clinton masturbated with a cigar? When did that happen? And how do you do that?